(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a passive seat belt system for automatically applying a restraint webbing to an occupant after he has seated himself in a vehicle, especially, to the structures of a slide anchor, which serves to carry an associated webbing and assures increased safety upon running along the length of an associated guide rail, and an end member provided on the slide anchor, such as emergency release buckle (ERB) or cover.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Among passive seat belt systems for automatically applying a restraint webbing to an occupant, those equipped with a slide anchor which runs with a webbing carried thereon along the length of a guide rail provided in a vehicle have heretofore involved potential inconvenience that a part of a passenger's body such as hand, fingers or ear or an object such as stationary or clothing could be bitten or caught in a gap between the slide anchor and an end member attached as a unitary member to the slide anchor, such as emergency release buckle (ERB) or cover. The above inconvenience has been considered undesirable from the standpoint of the safety and reliability of such passive seat belt systems and has caused from time to time troubles and the like due to application of large loads to various parts of the systems. A typical example of such conventional passive seat belt systems will next be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.
FIG. 11 schematically illustrates a general passive seat belt system, whereas FIG. 12 is a fragmentary front view of a conventional slide anchor and guide rail. In FIG. 12, there are shown a webbing 1a, an emergency release buckle 3a as an end member, a buckle main body 3a' attached to a slide anchor 4a which will be described subsequently, a tongue 3a" releasably latched with the buckle main body 3a' and carrying the webbing 1a fastened at an one end portion thereof on the tongue 3a", and a guide rail 6a. The width of the slide anchor 4a as viewed in both running directions of the slide anchor 4a has conventionally tapered or narrowed down from an upper end face 42a of the buckle main body 3a', which is located on the side of the webbing 1a, toward a lower edge portion 61a of the guide rail 6a or a trim, lip or the like (hereinafter called "the lower edge portion of the guide rail" collectively) as illustrated in FIG. 12. As a result, an acute angle .theta. is formed between each of end faces 41a,41'a of the slide anchor 4a as viewed in both running directions of the slide anchor 4a and the lower edge portion 61a of the guide rail 6a. This structure has potential inconvenience that a hand, fingers or an object may be bitten or caught in pockets indicated by A in FIG. 12.